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THURSDAY, AUGUST 5, 2021
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Voters urged: Challenge parties on business ease
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
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PROMINENT realtor yesterday urged Bahamian voters to challenge general election candidates on how they plan to drag The Bahamas’ ease of doing business “from a third world mentality to a first world mentality”. Mario Carey, the Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate MCR Group Bahamas principal, told Tribune Business that the electorate needs to quiz prospective MPs from all the political parties on how they plan to address the transparency, accountability and red tape
• Top realtor: Ask how we get to ‘first world mentality’ • Nation can’t ‘put head in sand like ostrich’ any more • Govt focus on US report positives, not deficiencies
MARIO CAREY woes identified in the US government’s Investment Climate Statement report on The Bahamas. While acknowledging that it was possible to point
fingers back at the US, he argued that it was deeply frustrating for the same deficiencies and weaknesses in The Bahamas’ business and investment approvals processes to be flagged up year after year. Suggesting that The Bahamas faces the choice of “putting its head in the sand like an ostrich” or finally addressing longstanding impediments to private sector growth and job creation, Mr Carey said the technology exists for a “really quick” turnaround
on approvals speed and the ease of doing business if the political will and leadership is present. “From an investment point of view those are common remarks in any conversation,” he told this newspaper of the concerns detailed in the US Investment Climate statement. “I don’t think those conversations have gone away..... “Why are we stuck with these same problems? Why are we having these same
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Doctors in COVID testing expansion
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
DOCTORS Hospital is aiming to expand its COVID-19 testing sites to southern New Providence after its newly-opened British Colonial Hilton location hit a “3,000 run rate within the first week”. Dennis Deveaux, the BISX-listed healthcare provider’s chief financial officer, told Tribune Business that it is also seeking to take its PCR and rapid antigen services to other Bahamian islands as the total number of tests it has performed todate rapidly approaches the 500,000 mark. With demand likely to increase as a result of the government’s revised testing protocols set to take effect tomorrow, he added that Doctors Hospital has
Hospital ‘must beat misperception’ that it’s not affordable By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
DOCTORS Hospital “must beat misperceptions” that its healthcare services are too expensive to be accessed by middle and lower income Bahamians, its chief financial officer says. Dennis Deveaux told Tribune Business that the BISX-listed healthcare provider has already moved to tackle such beliefs through slashing patient deposit requirements by 50 percent and introducing its Loyalty Advantage (LAMP) primary care initiative that gives patients
• Hilton hits ‘3,000 run rate’ within first week • BISX-listed firm nears 500,000 tests done • Free COVID testing? Someone must pay
DOCTORS HOSPITAL already expanded this service to Grand Bahama and is now aiming to do the same with Exuma. Some 150 persons are employed by Doctors Hospital on COVID-19 access to a doctor via membership plans ranging from 75 cents to $1.50 per day ($30-$40 per month). “There’s a misperception around affordability at Doctors Hospital,” Mr Deveaux conceded, asserting that it would never seek the $250,000-$500,000 patient deposits requested by major Florida hospitals for catastrophic cases. “It’s non-existent that we’d seek that requirement and impose it on Bahamians. It doesn’t exist,” he added. “We lowered deposit requirements during the crisis by 50 percent. That lowers the barrier to access at the point of needing care. “That means taking on more accounts receivables risk, and we have to be careful how we manage that and
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Bank ‘hopelessly deficient’ on $600k loan guarantee By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
BANK of The Bahamas’ “hopelessly deficient case” has left it unable to enforce a guarantee for a near-$600,000 delinquent mortgage owed on a property in south-west New Providence’s Coral Vista subdivision. The Court of Appeal, in a unanimous ruling, overturned an earlier Supreme Court Order by Justice Gregory Hilton that mandated Simeon Peter Cooper help repay $593,291 plus interest to the BISX-listed bank in his role as guarantor for the mortgage owed by Betty Joe
Antasha Cooper (nee Smith). Dismissing the case against Mr Cooper, appeal justice Stella Crane-Scott found that Bank of The Bahamas had provided no evidence to show that he was liable for the debt in his role as guarantor. Backing the arguments of Mr Cooper’s attorney, Bahamas Bar Association chairman Khalil Parker, she wrote: “We have given anxious consideration to the contending arguments and agree with Mr Parker that the bank’s pleaded case vis-à-vis Mr Cooper (as guarantor)
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testing, and Mr Deveaux said the healthcare provider is focused on “price leadership” where Bahamians and residents “cannot find a better priced test in Nassau”.
Tribune Business previously revealed that the COVID-19 testing roll-out had given the BISX-listed firm a significant multimillion dollar boost for the financial year that closed at end-January 2021, but the Doctors Hospital financial chief said the issue of whether testing should be free - as demanded by the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) - was “a public policy question” to be put to the Government rather than the company. Besides its two main COVID testing centres at
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BTC’s half-year better via 16% revenue rise By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) enjoyed a 16.3 percent year-over-year increase in 2021 second quarter revenues, it was revealed yesterday, despite losing close to 3,000 prepaid mobile subscribers. Liberty Latin America (LiLAC), its ultimate parent, revealed that BTC’s top-line for the three months to endJune rose by almost $7m compared to prior year numbers, jumping from $41m to $47.7m. This, in turn, helped propel the Bahamian carrier to a modest 2.6 percent increase in 2021 half-year revenues, more than offsetting the first quarter decline to produce a $92.7m top-line compared to the prior year’s $90.3m. BTC’s 2021 second quarter numbers were up against weak comparatives from the prior year, as that was the period which endured the bulk of COVID-19 lockdowns and associated restrictions. While it does not represent a trend, and LiLAC does not reveal BTC’s bottom line profits, the carrier can at least take some encouragement that it has halted - at least for the moment - a declining topline trend. BTC also increased its postpaid mobile subscriber numbers by 400 during the 2021 second quarter, increasing the total to 33,100. This is the more lucrative, stable segment of the market representing higher margin customers on long-term contracts. However, success in this area may again be overshadowed by the loss of some 2,800 prepaid customers during the same period. Prepaid subscribers fell to 144,600 as a result, and net total mobile subscribers dropped by 2,400 to 177,700
amid cut-throat competition with its rival, Aliv, for market share. Elsewhere, BTC’s other business segments added a combined 2,900 customers or revenue generating units (RGUs) during the 2021 second quarter. Most of these, some 1,300, were Internet subscribers while a further 700 were added on the TV/video side and 900 on fixed-line telephone communications. With 120,900 homes passed by BTC’s fibre-to-thehome network, BTC ended the 2021 second quarter with 72,400 non-mobile RGUs. These included 29,100 Internet subscribers, 8.700 TV customers and 34,600 fixedline phone users. Andre Foster, BTC’s chief executive, earlier this year admitted to Tribune Business that the carrier faces “a real day-by-day fight” to reclaim mobile market share lost to Aliv. However, he said the carrier is “pretty confident” that the erosion of its mobile subscriber base has “bottomed out”, adding that BTC believes new products that it plans to launch in the 2021 second half will “help us reclaim some of our mobile subscriber base”. Aliv, though, previously said its total mobile customer base had increased to 186,000 at year-end 2020 which, if accurate, means it has seized majority market share from BTC. BTC’s revenues suffered a 12.6 percent year-over-year decline in 2020, dropping by $26.2m from $207.3m in the prior year to $181.1m for the 12 months to end-December, a fall that will largely have been driven by COVID-19 and its devastating impact on consumers. The carrier’s revenue also fell by $48.1m over a twoyear period when the 2020 figures are measured against 2018. That equates to a 21 percent decline.